COMPOSITE FAMILY COMPOSITAE 
MIST FLOWER 
Eupatorium coelestinum L. 
The Mist Flower grows in rich soil in partly exposed places — 
from New Jersey to Michigan, Kansas and southwest. In Illinois - 
it is found only along streams and in wet places of the south, but — 
it is often cultivated elsewhere. — 
This plant blooms in August and — 
September and in gardens blends | 
well with PA/ox and other hardy 
native plants lacking blue colors. 
It can be propagated by seeds, 
or readily by dividing the roots 
in fall or spring. 
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This is a branching perennial 
herb 6-36 inches high. The stems 
are more or less hairy, tinged 
red to brown and bearing oppo- 
site round-toothed leaves on — 
short petioles. Below each of the 
many-flowered heads, which are 
arranged in rather compact 
clusters, is a broadly bell-shaped — 
involucre of linear-lanceolate, 
acuminate bracts that are green 
at the bases and brownish at the 
tips, equal or nearly so and in 
I or 2 series. 
The smaller figure shown is a 
single flower. The pappus is com-_ 
posed of soft white hairs. The 5 
lobes of the corolla are intensely 
blue or violet. The stamens are 
inconspicuous but the 2 long stigmas are colored like the corolla 
and give a misty appearance to the flower cluster. The single- 
seeded 5-sided fruits are well adapted to wind dissemination. 
The receptacle in this species is distinctly conic, a difference | 
from other species of Eupatorium. 4 
Dreaming of light till our dream became 
Aureate bells and beakers of flame— 
Splashed with the splendor of wine of flame. 
Columbines—ARTHUR GUITERMAN 
342 
